It is commonly necessary to bore access holes into engine cylinder heads during manufacture. Thereby, access to the oil gallery is permitted for completing engine assembly. Of course, after assembly the access holes must be sealed.
A common way to seal the oil gallery access holes is to insert a hollow, cup-shaped seal into the hole. It happens, however, that such access hole seals in vehicle engines might leak oil. In other words, the seals might not properly operate to completely block the access holes. Such oil leaks, like all engine oil leaks, are undesirable in that leaks raise the spectre of losing engine lubrication and thus ruining the engine. Furthermore, with particular regard to oil gallery access hole leaks, such leaks are difficult at best to repair in the field, and frequently require removing the engine from the vehicle and partially disassembling the engine to fix the leaks. As recognized by the present invention, however, it is possible to provide a means for quickly and effectively remedying oil gallery access hole leaks, without requiring removal of the engine.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for remedying oil gallery access hole leaks in vehicles. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for remedying oil gallery access hole leaks in vehicles which does not require removing the engine from the vehicle. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for remedying oil gallery access hole leaks in vehicles which is easy to use and cost-effective.